as president obama signed twenty three executive actions to help reduce gun violence thousands do a mad dash to the nearest gun store before new regulations kick out so much that it's causing an ammunition shortage for police forces coming up will debate safety first and second amendment rights. the obama administration promised to be the most transparent in american history but when you look at the real history this president appeared appears to hold his cards close to his chest some argue a little too close ahead a look at how he stacks up against other presidents and just one day after computer protege aaron swartz was laid to rest one u.s. representative is proposing a new order to protect internet users

a critical analysis of the computer plot and abuse and now updating the law could prevent prosecutors from going after people like aaron. it's wednesday january sixteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you watching our team. well the issue of gun violence gun rights and gun restrictions took center stage today when president obama and vice president biden announced in a news conference this issue will not only be a priority but that action will be taken immediately the president says he'll advocate to strengthen and reus reinstate the assault weapons ban and a ten round limit for ammunition magazines and that he hopes to increase access to mental health and require a criminal background check on every gun sale today he signed it twenty three actions putting improving the federal background check system beefing up efforts to

prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crimes nominated director of the bureau of alcohol tobacco firearms and explosives and to focus more on the mental health aspects including a reminder to health care providers that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence the only way we will be able to change is if their audience their constituents their membership says this time must be different that this time we must do something to protect our communities and our kids i will put everything i've got into this and so will joe. but i tell you the only way we can change is if the american people demand those in favor of stricter gun laws applauded the president's actions however those who think that the government has no place in making any laws about guns are going on the defensive so

to explore the ins and outs of this issue i was joined earlier in our studio by roger pilon vice president of legal affairs at cato institute and george washington reporter for the nation magazine and i started out by asking roger what today's announcement will accomplish not a lot the twenty three measures that he himself is going to take if you look at the relatively trivial for example pretty vague as well pretty vague as well calling for the centers for disease control to do a study of the causes of gun violence is if we don't have a pretty good handle of that already other measures to deal with data sharing in those are important better because right now that is a problem but most of the measures that are the ones that we hear about the. restriction on assault weapons and so forth there's going to take legislation that can be done by executive order right and george i mean talk to me about this because a lot of what the president did today is sort of call congress to action to keep

this topic you know keep keep the bright lights you know shining on this topic how realistic is it really that some of the more important issues will be dealt with by congress i think some of them have a pretty good chance of passage i don't think we'll see an assault weapons ban unfortunately but i do think there's pretty broad bipartisan support for. closing the gun show loophole for for expanded background checks for limiting high capacity magazines if not the weapons i've heard republicans come out in favor of that so i think it's possible some of that stuff gets through and if it doesn't it at least sets that it sets the table for future action so that the people who vote against it perhaps that becomes an issue in the next midterms maybe that the train gets more fertile next time around and i can. be the start of something that you know that doesn't happen now would have been four years six years eight years from now i think it's a good point that the ball is rolling because after all this is an issue that for so long no lawmaker on either side of the aisle really wanted to touch and yet it's interesting because thirty thousand americans die every year from gun violence and

you know we talk about the war in iraq for example about four thousand three hundred americans died that is so what do you think i mean is the n.r.a. a little bit out of touch with americans went when it wants. laws at all will they americans are deeply divided on the issues you as all the polls show when you talk about gun violence of course included in that is everything from suicide to police using guns to criminals to the war on drugs which is a big source of the gun violence in the country today and so on and so forth but when it comes to something like increased background checks for gun shows that eighty five percent of the american people support and i think that that probably will be passed but then when you get to some of these other issues for example the restrictions on large volume magazines he wants to agree duce. stop the sale of thirty rome magazines and allow only ten round magazines well that is just simply

putting your head in the sand because it takes about two seconds to switch magazines so if my arithmetic is correct three turn round magazines equals one thirty round magazine and so you're not going to accomplish anything by that it's sort of a feel good measure and yet quite a few people are citing this as perhaps something that could have stopped other events and i've never seen you know where with this kind of magazine but i say do it you know if it takes two seconds to switch magazines you accomplished nothing let me ask you george i mean people are saying that fewer deaths would have happened at the gabby giffords shooting at the movie theater shooting i think it's a useful public policy by. look it's not just thirty or magazines there are sixty one magazines out there there are hundreds around that the shooter and aurora used the underground magazine and what's interesting if you look at that shooting is that there was at most ninety seconds between the first nine one one call presumably when he came into the theater and when the police responded and in that

ninety seconds he shot seventy one people so i think even and i agree that reducing the magazine size isn't going to solve the whole problem but but every second i think and tragic situations like this comes and i think i have yet to hear from most gun rights advocates of a compelling personal liberty case for owning a sixty round or thirty round magazine over say a ten round one of course nothing will be done to call back the millions of large round magazines that are out there are millions of assault weapons that are out there and so i think when you look at this from the guns perspective this is really kind of feel good legislation but one measure that would immediately be able to be implemented and would serve to reduce not eliminate but you can't eliminate all that but reduce abstention to this is if we did have armed guards at places that are no gun free zones and that of course is something that the american people do

support that around the fact that we're at a time when congress is debating the money that this country spends that the debt this country has adding armed guards to every school would be an extraordinary additional cost to the answer to this is not something that belongs to the federal government to do this is a local issue education is primarily a state and local issue therefore communities can go in this direction if they want to they don't have to let me go look at sandy hook elementary this wasn't in an area that ever saw any kind of violence this wasn't at a school where there were not all the time. to be sure but these are the in fact that's just the point these are very isolated incidents and so the question becomes how much measure do you want to take what kinds. measured you want to if it is so rare and then it's up to a community to decide we're seeing communities today for example there's been stories about in pennsylvania where communities are moving in this direction because they have decided for themselves we want to spend the money for this and

this is the way it should be in this country that's why we have federalism in this country because each state can approach this as it wants to approach george i want you to get in here and respond to that i don't think more security at schools as per se a bad idea but i'm not sure that it does much to address the problem we saw in virginia tech which is the worst school shooting in american history that was not only one armed guard but an entire police force that was unable to stop the slaughter on top of that this year you've seen you know while newtown inspiring people to action it's not it's not the only place unfortunately where mass gun violence is happening you're seeing just this year mesh in exact movie theaters spas churches shopping malls and so while that's rising society lot of the recluses do have guards and others do not for example there was a shooting know about a month ago you know or a gun in a mall in oregon and someone was there with a gun to stop the shooter you know it's a good thing that you mention george the bridge and you turkeys because there is a case where as you know we have forty one states in the country that allow

concealed carry if one of the students in the class had had a weapon we might have had one or two deaths not thirty two that's a big difference i want to you had mentioned earlier in the discussion on the american people and sort of where their public opinion is there's a new washington post a.b.c. poll i just want to put the results up of that and it shows that fifty nine percent of people surveyed said that obama and congress should make enacting stricter gun control laws a priority so i guess i just want to get your take i mean the n.r.a. is one thing gun rights advocates you know certainly are not all in one category but george talk about this i mean why i can't if fifty nine. percent of americans feel this way that this should be a top priority why is it so difficult to get any changes passed i think for one reason you know while that may be broadly shared it's not it's much less popular among the republican base and what a lot of the republican members of congress are worried about are not how they do

in the general election but how they do in the primaries so even if they may personally support you know more background checks smaller magazines what have you what they're worried about is that in the primary they get an n.r.a. funded more right wing opponent who comes in and call them a gun grabber and then all this and they're out of a job so that's going to be a big obstacle well that's one aspect to be sure another aspect is that the country has various parts that are very strong gun supporters as opposed to sort of the dorothy east but when you go to speak about gun control and you speak about for example assault weapons the immediate problem that arises is well what do you mean by an assault weapon and this comes up in the for example the legislation that came out of new york state just a day before yesterday because they defined it as a rifle or a pistol that has a magazine and one military style feature what's

a military style feature i mean this was the way the original legislation back in ninety four was styled and of course it was very easy to get around that you just manufactory your weapon differently and it no longer has a quote military style features so the definition is very very difficult i mean i think i think that's a really good point that the whole issue of course very complex and i want to talk about another aspect of it here. shortly after both president obama's re-election and of course the shootings in newtown connecticut ammunition in this country started flying off the shelves this is according to police departments around the country police departments actually having a very tough time being able to get their hands on ammunition there are shortages. people are worried that their guns will be you know that they will no longer be allowed to have their guns that they will no longer be allowed to have ammo george talk about this i mean is there a great area between you know no gun and just a couple stricter laws because

a lot of people say that once you tighten the belt strap a little bit on these laws that it's just going to keep getting worse so i'm not aware of any major politician who's who is in favor of stripping confiscating all guns in america whether they because it's a very popular argument for appeal it is it's an argument made by gun manufacturers and their with their allies in the media and the nonprofit sector who want people to believe that so that people go buy want guns but. in fact i don't see that as anything politically viable as long as any of us are alive i think a lot of the restrictions are just common sense ones you know where the president pointed out today that he wanted to ban armor piercing bullets which police departments don't want to see they don't want people shooting bullets so their vests and i think that's something where you might find a lot of common ground on but i've yet to see anyone actually seriously propose confiscating all bullets what do you think about this argument roger i mean. that i mean i think it's an overreaction although it is in the background i mean we have seen other countries where confiscation of guns did follow registration and it's

one of the first things hitler for example so you do is not a completely deluded see to believe that but in this country i don't think it's in the offing in anywhere in the near future because we are a culture that is very deeply. in love with our guns and it leads to lots of people for hunting for sport for collection and so on and sort of how do we change the discussion or the debate to say you know these sort of more extreme laws don't have to equal so obama is going to take my god we haven't yet said anything about who is the five hundred pound gorilla in the room. and that's the mental health issue and that's a really good point dr and that is the issue that is the most difficult we saw in the new york state legislation that came out yesterday or the day before. a requirement for mental health professionals to report to mental health officials

people that they suspect may be doing drugs to themselves or others well that raises very serious questions if they fail to report they could be prosecuted but there is a good faith exception will there's all kinds of room for difficulties there but the biggest problem and there are two major problems first of all it runs right up against the doctor patient relationship right private certain elements of that and even more important it would discourage people from thinking how on to seek help from getting it if they know that they're going to be reported to law enforcement officials if you're in so i mean the thing we want to do is to encourage these people to get to get help george we have about thirty seconds left to your take on sort of the mental health aspect of this that's actually somewhere where we absolutely agree i would hate to see people discourage their r.t. is a requirement a law that if a psychiatrist or doctor thinks their patient is an imminent danger that they are

required to call the police i think going beyond that would be a bad policy that's certainly an interesting discussion and i think an intelligent one and it shows right here that there is agreement even for two people who sort of disagree on this issue that there is great matter that there are areas where some progress can be made roger pilon vice president of legal affairs at cato institute and george soros washington reporter for the nation magazine thank you both for being on the show you're welcome so the president appeared in public to push forward these executive actions to get his message out there but like so many public statements and appearances he did not take any questions from the press despite a promise he made shortly after taking the oath of office back in two thousand and nine. the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so the american people can know exactly what decisions are being made made how they're being made and whether their interests are being well served well as it turns out the president's mission to be the most transparent president in history has so far

fallen a little short now political science professor at house and university crunched the numbers of presidents and the number of news conferences they held in their first term president obama held seventy nine bill clinton one hundred thirty three george h.w. bush one hundred forty three and george w. bush held eighty nine now the only person with fewer while the great communicator himself president ronald reagan who held just twenty seven now the same professor also tallied the question and answer sessions with reporters and found very similar statistics with obama under performing all of them except for president reagan even when the president holds press conferences he calls on people by name that he's chosen in advance if you're not called on well here's what can happen. thank you very much. you. know.

that was a great question but it would be a horrible precedent for me to answer your question just because you yelled it out so thank you very much guys now as much as this president obama's administration recently quadrupled the number of signatures that must be collected to get out of official response from the white house those petitions on the administration's we the people website must now get one hundred thousand signatures this after a series of unpopular shall we say petition drives created by the president's critics now president obama has certainly made himself visible during his presidency we can't say he hasn't he's got accounts on websites like flicker and twitter and facebook but these still allow the president's team to have total control over the content when it comes to two sided conversations obama would rather play it safe. throughout the course of the we have been telling you about aaron swartz an internet activist and regular guest on our team america was found

dead in his home on friday after an apparent suicide parents family is blaming the government and its vast overreach for pursuing a harsh thirty plus year sentence for aaron who was accused of illegally downloading academic articles without permission no victims just information made public and he faced thirteen felony counts of hacking and wire fraud under the computer fraud and abuse act well now u.s. congresswoman from california has drafted a bill to try to update the law and prevent what she calls a dangerous dangerous legal interpretations representative's all we lost and wrote in an internet chat on reddit yesterday a site that swartz himself helped to create that quote we should prevent what happened to aaron from happening to other internet users. the government was able to bring such a disproportionate charges against aaron because of the bronx scope of the computer fraud and abuse act and the wire fraud stop statute she's going to erin's law and to talk more about this i was joined earlier by trevor tim an activist with the electronic frontier foundation he started off by explaining hacking was overall and

the problems prosecutors have interpreted them the main law is called the computer fraud and abuse act and unfortunately it was written. that you know much more than a decade ago before we really had an idea about our conceptions of hacking and computer crime and all of that as we do today and so it can be used in these really harsh ways where as we saw in aaron swartz case he was facing thirty five years in prison for essentially. going into j. store and downloading a bunch of academic documents now you can parrot to essentially checking out too many books in the library and he was facing decades in prison for this so-called crime. now the problem is that it's the flying words like authorized access to mean just about anything and you could and the department of justice has taken a bunch of cases to court saying that if you violate the terms of service on

various websites that you may actually be breaking the law and that should never be the case you know these laws need to be updated in the prison sentences needed to be relaxed especially for supposed crimes like this where there was no economic motive or there was no way for him to profit even if they said even if he did all the things that he did that they said he did something that a lot of people forget in aaron's case that leases that jay store this. place where he illegally download all the stuff didn't have a problem with when all was said and done just or said you know they were fine with that so it's really interesting when you look at this case but also looking at cases ahead and trying to sort of lay the groundwork for future cases so congresswoman lofgren still includes a provision to quote amend title eighteen united states code to exclude certain violations of agreements or contractual obligations relating to internet service

from the purview of certain criminal probe of missions and for other purposes trevor kind of break this down for me i mean could updating this law really make a noticeable difference in the fight for a free and open internet. oh absolutely and i think the build going to change a little bit and expand as they go forward with it but that was basically that problem addresses what i had mentioned before about the terms of service agreement where whenever you go on a website or you sign up for a service like twitter or facebook or google or or j. store for example you sign an agreement to abide by certain rules that they set out but because you you know enter into to and can contractual obligation with another company does not mean that you're breaking computer crime laws or hacking laws if you then. allegedly violate that agreement so that would solve one part of the problem but there you know there are many others especially when you're talking about the definitions of of language in the bill and also the prison sentences you

know we see we have seen the prosecutors in this case really target him very aggressively far more aggressively than in similar actions that you would see in the physical world so you know for taking the allegations in this complaint as true even though they may not have been then you know aaron was engaged in some sort of civil defense disobedience and protest in the maximum and he should have gotten was you know something akin to trespassing like thirty days and days in jail like you do if you were involved in a sit in or some other sort of protest but instead he was because he. committed his alleged crime with a computer he was facing thirty five years and that's just not fair yes certainly a lot of people who have really been following this case closely really felt like the prosecutors. attorney general's office wanted to make an example out of aaron swartz and sort of say you know this is what's going to happen this is the precedent and that's the problem here it was so many of these internet cases is there isn't precedent so far i want to get your take that trevor i mean what else

needs to be done with this specific act of computer fraud and abuse act what else needs to change in it before you know people can feel comfortable about the future of internet freedom. well unfortunately i think there needs to be a kind of a. not necessarily looking at specifics in the law but looking at information that the general public gets about so-called hackers and. how we approach them in society you know right now in congress there's going to be coming up there's going to be a big cybersecurity debate again and we're going to hear all of this scaremongering about cyber crime and cyber armageddon everything. yet. here we see on the other side. can do a lot of good and was a great activist that fought against so he created the original r.s.s. to help with creative commons and this is

a completely different type of hacker than here the government trying to scaremonger about. the first problem is educating congress that there are a lot of people there doing a lot of good they're trying to. to further society with their so-called crimes and that we need to scream please separate that from real cyber crime and potential cyber armageddons or whatever they want to say yeah i want to ask you i mean certainly we had aaron on our team america quite a bit to talk about by the stop online piracy act and the protect ip act. and those that did not end up passing and people like aaron people with outspoken voices were able to get sort of those messages out in terms of why this would not be good for society we're about to have an inauguration here on monday a second term for president obama a similarly looking a similar looking congress what are you kind of focused on trevor with the

electronic frontier foundation in terms of sort of the next pieces of legislation to deal with cyber security. well it's not just cyber security it's internet prior i've seen general in the next year there may be more privacy battles in congress and there have been in the past decade you know we have this they tried to pass the cyber security bill cispa last year which basically carved a giant loophole into all of our privacy laws that allowed companies to give information and potentially your communications to the government without a warrant thankfully it didn't pass but they're going to try to bring it up again. e-mail still isn't protected with a warrant like there's a call letters and phone calls is even though you know it's our main form of communication there's g.p.s. tracking on our cell phone that congress has to take a look at because police haven't been using a warrant for that there's drone surveillance and even the administration wants to pass a new internet surveillance law which would basically force companies to install a backdoor into their into their networks so facebook and g.

mail and everything else they would have real time access to it now they would still need a warrant for this but this would still obviously bring up huge cases for abuse and also would just make the internet less safe so. those are all the battles that we see coming in the next year and it's really sad that we don't have someone as great as their to sit here to stand with us and fight against them yes certainly aaron helped us a lot to understand what was happening to break this down and to put into perspective why it was important for every american to care about these issues appreciate having you on the show trevor tim an activist with the electronic frontier foundation thanks so much. we want to bring you an update now on the case of private first class bradley manning pretrial proceedings continue at fort meade as private manning awaits trial on tap today in the court room well according to one of our staff members in the courtroom there were two topics of conversation the

question of motive versus intent and the lack of a speedy trial now as we've been reporting manning has now been held without trial for nine hundred and sixty four days as of today there is still no clear answer as to why the government continues to drag its feet while the burden is on the prosecution to explain the delay they've yet to do so the trial is now slated to begin on june third barring further holdups the other major development is the judge's ruling that motive is relevant to one of manning's charges the charge of aiding the enemy motive the judge clarified meant the ultimate goal of the action while intent is the immediate goal while a noble motive like increasing government transparency for instance does not cancel out the crime it can influence the sentence for instance of the defense can prove that manning selected particular documents to send to wiki leaks that would not harm the u.s. based on factors of the documents age location and topics it could lessen the severity of his sentence if he's convicted. now for those of you following this war

on whistleblowers the name john kiriakou came up at the proceedings as well today kiriakou was a former government official who leaked information about torture to the new york times and was sentenced to two years in prison today the judge from the kiriakou trial was cited as a relevant precedent in a ruling on a motion to preclude evidence we do want to bring you as much of the story as we can and will continue to do so as it develops but for now that's going to do it but for more on the stories we cover to go to youtube dot com slash america you should also check out our website our team dot com slash usa and if you're not already follow me on twitter at christine for sell. another reason they use the ball much more than a priority picking up a book or look at president obama's second term derby even bill would be even more invasions of our privacy even and monday january twenty first of the year to them and well like the president only on a.